Brilliant Baked Orange & Cardamom Cheesecake

Looking for an alternative to traditional Christmas pud?
Try this fluffy baked cheesecake flavoured with festive orange zest, cardamom and topped with plenty of dark chocolate.

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Ingredients

Olive or sunflower oil

24 digestive biscuits

125g butter

100g dark chocolate

6 cardamom pods

1 orange, zest and juice

4 eggs

150g caster sugar

500g ricotta

250g mascarpone

2 tbsp plain flour

50g dried cranberries

*If you can, bake the cheesecake the night before but don’t take it out of the oven. Just turn it off and let the cheesecake cool in the oven overnight. The slow cooling helps the cheesecake stay in one piece. Alternatively, cool the cheesecake and store it in your fridge.

2. Roughly chop half the chocolate. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat. Stir the biscuit crumbs into the melted butter. When they're well mixed, stir in the chopped chocolate. Spoon into the cake tin. Press down and smooth with the back of a spoon. Bake for 10 mins.

3. Pop the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar. Crack them open. Separate out the black seeds. Grind the seeds to a fine powder. Finely grate or pare the zest from the orange. Juice it.

4. Crack the eggs into a large bowl. Add most of the sugar, putting 1 tbsp to one side. Whisk together for 2-3 mins till the eggs are pale and thick. Add the cardamom, orange zest, ricotta, mascarpone and flour. Whisk together till smooth (don't overbeat).

5. Spoon the cheese mixture into the baking tin. Turn the oven down to 160°C/Gas 3 (low and slow is the rule for cheesecakes). Bake for around 55 mins till the cheesecake is just set with a slight wobble in the middle. Cool in the tin*.

6. When you’re ready to serve, loosen the cake tin. Lift the cheesecake up and out. Pop on a serving plate. Melt the rest of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

7. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cheesecake. Tip the dried cranberries in a pan with the orange juice and the spoonful of sugar you saved earlier. Warm over a lowish heat till the sugar dissolves. Spoon over the cheesecake and serve.

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